This application relates to a method and system for determining a configuration of an environment, and more particularly to a method and system for determining a configuration of a document production environment.
It is often difficult to determine the best print devices to place in an environment, such as an office environment or the like. Certain tools are available that attempt to automate this determination, such as the tool described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0178917 to Merriam et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The current tools consider the distance between print devices in order to constrain the number of print devices in a large portion of a specific area, but they do not utilize spatial knowledge regarding the relative locations of the users or the printing needs of different spatial entities within the environment. For example, the current tools can estimate how many color printers are needed on every floor of a building. However, this estimate does not guarantee that the identified devices will have the correct distribution of color printing performance needed by each group of users on the floor.